Post by CSA FD on Nov 18, 2009 22:09:22 GMT -5

A week after a female's body was found in a ditch in Jennings State Forest, police identified the victim as 17-year-old Meghan Elizabeth Runkle.

Two cousins scouting hunting spots on state land Nov. 5 found the body in the northern end of forest that covers northern Clay County and a small portion of Duval County near Cecil Commerce Center.

The hunters said the body was found naked near a bike path at least two miles south of Normandy Boulevard.

"We come up on the buzzards flying in the air and that's when we came across the body, laying face down in about 4 inches of water in a ditch," said one of the men, who asked to only be identified as Andy.

Andy and his cousin originally called the Clay County Sheriff's Office, but the case was turned over to Jacksonville investigators when it was determined the body was in Duval County.

Police said they believe foul play was involved in the death, but they have released no other information about the case.

Anyone with information that could help investigators is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 866-845-TIPS.

"THE DEAD CANNOT CRY OUT FOR JUSTICE IT IS A DUTY OF THE LIVING TO DO SO FOR THEM" Life, Liberty and The Pursuit of Happiness These are the rights listed in the Declaration of Independence for each of us; EXCEPT IF YOU ARE MURDERED YOU NO LONGER HAVE ANY RIGHTS. Someone took them and now THEIR RIGHTS ARE PROTECTED. is a tradgedy that doesnt help the victims or their families heal.

Post by CSA FD on Nov 18, 2009 22:10:29 GMT -5

Early in the morning on November 21, 2008, the javascript countdown on Meghan Runkle's MySpace profile said it had been 7 days, 8 hours since her birthday. Meghan would have turned 18 on November 14.

By then, Meghan had been dead for a week or more.

Meghan Runkle was discovered in the Jennings State Forest in a ditch near a bike path. Her nude body lay in shallow water.

Police confirmed Meghan's identity on November 12. They are treating her death as a homicide.

For Meghan's family, it was tragedy on tragedy -- her younger brother Jonathan Hackett had died under medical care on November 2 in the Childrens Hospital in Pittsburgh, PA.

There's no doubt that Meghan Runkle was having a rough time in Florida. She had lived in California until at least 2007 and was living with friends in Florida when she died, but it wasn't clear as to whether she'd even finished high school or not. Her stepmom, Rebecca Jageacks, told Florida media that Meghan had encountered some "hardships" while living in Jacksonville, and that her stepdaughter had "wanted to get back in contact with her family." Jageacks said that Meghan "wanted to get a car, she wanted to get a job and put herself through school. She had so many choices that she wanted to do."

Meghan identified with fans of Insane Clown Posse. In addition to her MySpace page, she had profiles and at least one blog on Xanga.com. There she wrote, "umm... im a juggalette..." (juggalos are male fans of ICP, juggalettes the female fans) and posted original poems. One piece, posted on January 7, 2007, seemed to be about cutting:

"...I Promised Her I Would Not LeaveWe Kissed And Then She Started To BleedAs I Began To CryI Just Remembered I Didn't Say GoodbyeForgive Me Please, I Cannot StayThough I Have Since That Day'Too Much Pain I Cannot Bear'She Said Crying, Then 'Will They Really Care?'So As I Lay Here Crying And BleedingI Can Almost Hear You, Silently Screaming."

Meghan also had a personal profile on MyJuggaloSpace.com. There she wrote that her "religion" was "The Fellowship of Juggalos" and her occupation was "mass murderer."

I should stop right here and say that a lot of people misinterpret the Insane Clown Posse thing. (And it should be said, ICP followers can get very defensive about ICP being associated with anything like a newsworthy crime.)

It is easy for the judgmental and narrow-minded to look for ways to blame this group or its music -- ICP are essentially a hip-hop group and perform what Wikipedia refers to as horrorcore -- for Meghan Runkle's mysterious fate, but that would be missing the point. ICP are artists who have maintained a tight focus on a core audience and reaped substantial rewards from doing so. For the majority of ICP fans, the music is an outlet. It's like a pressure valve, releasing steam when the internal temperature gets too hot to bear. The guys who created the Insane Clown Posse personas are not really mass murderers and the kids who like them are not part of some evil satanic cult. Too few journalists and bloggers ignore this sort of caveat, and it is unfair (and tabloid) to the larger number of ICP fans who never do anything violent or criminal to do so.

The best reason to acknowledge Meghan Runkle's devotion to ICP as evidenced by her online presence is the insight it may give into the murdered girl and where she was in her life when she died. Was she running with other self-identified juggalos and juggalettes? Was there a predator in the group? That's a worthwhile question, because as anyone involved in any group on the "fringes" of society can tell you, psychopaths are drawn into exotic lifestyles along with good people who just refuse to lead ordinary lives. Another example of what I'm talking about might be the bdsm-fetish community: most people into bondage and dominance, most fetishists are not predatory killers. However, predators are easily drawn into those lifestyles, because they perceive easy pickings there.

Before she died, Meghan was apparently trying to re-connect with her family. She was a vulnerable point in life, and if you read much of her poetry [another example here], you can see she was inherently vulnerable, anyway.

If Meghan was indeed murdered as police believe, then someone picked her off, just as a wolf might single out the slow or sick sheep in the herd.

Meghan Runkle had other online profiles here and here. Another example of a poem apparently written by Meghan: The Attic Site Poetry page.

If you think you have information that might help investigators find out what really happened to Meghan Runkle, contact the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office.

"THE DEAD CANNOT CRY OUT FOR JUSTICE IT IS A DUTY OF THE LIVING TO DO SO FOR THEM" Life, Liberty and The Pursuit of Happiness These are the rights listed in the Declaration of Independence for each of us; EXCEPT IF YOU ARE MURDERED YOU NO LONGER HAVE ANY RIGHTS. Someone took them and now THEIR RIGHTS ARE PROTECTED. is a tradgedy that doesnt help the victims or their families heal.

Post by CSA FD on Nov 18, 2009 22:11:52 GMT -5

What The Hell Happened To Meghan Runkle?

Jacksonville, FL – On November 5th, two men were hiking in Jennings State Forest, a patch of land near the Clay/Duval county border.Â They were originally scouting out hunting spots, but they found more than they bargained for.Â About two miles in from Normandy Road, near the Cecil air field, they spotted circling buzzards.Â As they got closer, they saw what the buzzards had found.Â The nude body of a woman was lying in a ditch in just a few inches of water, near a bike path.Â They called the police, and the area was quickly turned into a crime scene. A week later, on November() 12th, the body was identified as 17-year-old Meghan Runkle, who had been living with some friends in Jacksonville.Â She would have been 18 just two days later.Â Police for Duval County are investigating this as a homicide at this time, saying the death is ’suspicious’, but not elaborating.

In an odd parallel, Meghan’s younger brother Jonathan Hackett died in care at Children’s Hospital on November 2nd.Â Â Â He would have been 15 just a few days later, on the 6th.Â Meghan never knew her brother died, nor did he know she was gone.Â She had only recently reestablished contact with her family in Pennsylvania, keeping in touch with her stepmother (Jonathan’s mother, Rebecca Jaegacks) through Myspace().Â Her last login was on October() 2nd, though… and it’s possible that she had been dead since then.Â When her remains were found she was in such an advanced state of decomposition, it was impossible to pinpoint her time, or even date of death.

It is supremely difficult for me, as a mother, to imagine what could have happened to Meghan Runkle.Â I can’t help but look at it from a mother’s perspective.Â What if it had been my daughter in that drainage ditch?Â How would I be able to pick up and go on, having lost a son and a daughter so close together?

Here’s where I lose it, though.Â Where were the adults in her life?Â You have a 17 year old girl, in Florida, whose Myspace shows her having gone to school in California, whose family seems to all be in New York and Pennsylvania.Â There are no anchors, nothing that seems permanent.Â She drifted too far, and ended up in a drainage ditch, and they still don’t know how, why, or even WHEN.

That same Myspace shows pictures of a very pretty girl, in that spot midway between beautiful child and striking adult, trying to find an identity.Â The few blogs are dramatic in the way only a 17 year old who wants to be loved can be dramatic.Â Romeo and Juliet style poetry, ’stand by your friends’ stuff… all the things a 15-16-17 year old writes.

I hope Meghan has some measure of peace now that she was unable to find in life.

"THE DEAD CANNOT CRY OUT FOR JUSTICE IT IS A DUTY OF THE LIVING TO DO SO FOR THEM" Life, Liberty and The Pursuit of Happiness These are the rights listed in the Declaration of Independence for each of us; EXCEPT IF YOU ARE MURDERED YOU NO LONGER HAVE ANY RIGHTS. Someone took them and now THEIR RIGHTS ARE PROTECTED. is a tradgedy that doesnt help the victims or their families heal.